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Tuesday, February 5, 2008

What's your OQ?

Recently, Poynter's E-Media Tidbits column highlighted a do-it-yourself plan of action from Howard Owens designed to get "non-wired" journalists Web-savvy. It's a cool plan, and going by the comments on his page at least one newsroom has already implemented it.

What levels have you already reached on the plan? Grossly oversimplified, Owens' steps could be stated as:

Level 1: I blog
Level 2: I post stills on an online photo sharing site like Flickr
Level 3: I've made at least 3 videos and posted them to YouTube and another video sharing site
Level 4: I have spent at least two hours per week surfing YouTube, observing trends and favorites, for six weeks or longer
Level 5: I belong to LinkedIn and either Facebook or MySpace
Level 6: I use social bookmarking such as del.icio.us, Digg, Mixx or Publish2
Level 7: I use RSS to keep up with news and blogs
Level 8: I text-message
Level 9: I Twitter
Level 10: I've done all these things plus made a Google map mashup.

I'm a level 5 so far. Then again, perhaps due to ignorance or my own antiquation (I'm 35), I can't imagine wanting to text-message. (Also, I do not play no rock and roll.) But I suppose it's likely that I will wish I knew how to text at some point in my job. That's what the plan's about, to me: giving yourself a reason to learn these things just for the sake of broadening your horizons. (Incidentally, if you're not even at level 1 yet, there could be $100 in it for you.)

What's your online quotient? Post a comment here and let us know. (With your class year! I could do a snazzy chart with the results.)

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